A friday treat for us all!
The annual Vienna Jam during the Argus Bike Festival at Vienna’s Rathausplatz is growing each year. Tom Sevisual was on hand to document the weekend, and by the look of it this was an absolutely amazing weekend including a contest, workshops helping kids, cash for tricks jams and plenty of happy faces. Keep a look out for Viki Gomez’s bike flip line at 2:16 is amazing! Big up Sebastian Grubinger and everyone who worked on the Vienna Jam, this is awesome!
This past September, the Heresy crew chose to embark on a week tour in the south of sunny France where they also filmed their last team video “GROUP ASPHALTANIC RITES”, and took part in jams with the locals in Bordeaux, Toulouse and Montpellier. Good vibes throughout, plus head over to the DIG BMX website for the story and photos.
Fülöp Vidakovich impressed the hell of me a few years ago at the BMX Cologne contest winning the AM class. Since then I have always kept an eye on this Hungarian shredder, once again Tom @ Sevisual kills the edit and combined with Fülöp Vidakovich’s riding talent you have a good watch right here. Is this the next guy to come through onto the international stage from the Hungarian flatland scene after Adam Kun? Time will tell..
Good people bring good vibes and this is so evident from this years Vienna Jam. BMX and flatland needs more of this level of event. Look at all the smiles and good times from Tom Sevisual’s Vienna Jam edit above and Sebastian’s repo below. Big respect to Sebastian for putting this event on and helping grow flatland at a grassroots level whilst on a big stage.
Dustyn Alt killed it all weekend long. Winning the Best Trick on Sunday and collecting plenty of euros during the cash for tricks jam.
What a weekend, but let’s start from the beginning …
It’s been 8 years ago when voices got louder that it’s time for a Flatland Jam in Vienna. It didn’t take long and an already closed BMX Shop and I organized a small jam. Nothing special, just some fun contests like Hang-5 slalom, some goodies from several BMX companies and time to jam together. The main goal was to bring people together and have a good time. From this time on it happened every year …
Now, 8 years later, I got the chance to organize the Vienna Jam at one of European’s biggest bike festivals. The “Bike Festival Vienna” happened for the 20th year in front of Vienna’s city hall on the „Rathausplatz“. It has over 100 000 visitors on the weekend and shows all kind of bike sports.
Vienna Jam 2018. 35 riders, 14 nations. An amazing weekend for Flatland.
Sietse van Berkel. On and off his bike is amazing. And you should see him teaching flatland to the kids.
Akos Bordas representing Hungary during the cash for tricks and the best trick contest.
Repo:
But now about the weekend …
Friday the Vans Vienna Pre – Jam went down on Vienna’s local spot „Heldenplatz“. Already a lot of riders showed up and spent the evening together riding and hanging out. A very promising start into the weekend.
Saturday all started with Flatland workshops. Viki and me offered everyone who’s interested to ride a BMX bike and try some tricks. To be honest I didn’t expect so many people and I have to say a huge THANK YOU to all the riders who helped out. Workshops were scheduled for 2 hours but it happened to be all morning. Anyway it was a blast to see kids riding and trying their first tricks! The future is bright!
Mates Tucek impressed everyone with his mind blowing x-ft skills.
Around noon more and more riders arrived and started to rock the spot. The „Cash for Trix“ Jam late afternoon turned turned out to be huge: 35 riders from 14 nations. We had 500 Euros in small bills to give away and everyone, from beginner to pro, was killing it while DJ Preddy was spinning his 45s.
Right after the Cash for Tricks Jam all the riders moved from Rathausplatz to Heldenplatz to throw down the biggest jam I’ve ever seen on my home spot! Amazing vibes.
We ended the day at a local pub with around 20 riders – cheers!
Dustyn Alt mid best trick winning line.
Again, after a few hours of workshops on Sunday morning, everyone got ready for the Best Trick Contest. 1,5 minutes for each rider to show the best combo or trick. Price money for top five (700, 400, 200, 100, 100).
19 riders from 11 nations took part and everyone rode amazing! Some landed the combo first try, some in the last second. A huge audience was amazed!
Dustyn Alt took the win. He started the Contest and had to leave right after his 1,5 minutes to drive back 6,5 hours to Germany to go to work. Second place went to George Manos, followed by Gilles van de Sompel. Wolfgang Sauter and France Granic placed 4th and 5th.
Again the day ended on Heldenplatz with a big jam … well and for some of us later in the same pub as the day before 🙂
Showing his talent not only on Belgium TV, but also at the Vienna Jam. Gilles van de Sompel.
I can’t thank all of you enough who came to Vienna and made this event and weekend so special! You all rule!
The Vienna Jam will be back for sure – I don’t know when and I don’t know where but I promise, the main goal, like 8 years ago, will be: bring riders together and have a great time riding BMX!
Viki Gomez at the Vienna Jam for the second year. Here, mid death truck line.
Already so many amazing edits this year, and as Springtime has just kicked in for many of us the number will surely only rise! Take a rewind on our Must Watch picks for March!
– Effraim
Dub was working on this at the guru jam and now has it down! Amazing balance point on this two footed death truck on the pedals! Dub is always pushing so theres no telling where this Forklift move will head? You definitely don’t want to miss this one!
On March 7th, James White dropped an absolute banger on the flatland world! It is fair to say at the ripe age of 44, James dropped the best edit of his riding career! Later that day I shared a birthday beer with the man, not a bad way to spend my 40th birthday! Hit play on this way again, the body varial xft ice cream and that last move. Sexy flatland!
So many new whopper related bangers in this monthly edit from the incredibly talented Mateus Beckmann, the standout for me however is the 180 backwards peg wheelie half cab to steam line at 3:23! Don’t miss this one!
Like Mateus, Shintaro keeps on the incredible path of progression he’s been on it is seems particularly the last few months, one of my favourite riders for sure and maybe yours! Theres so much technicality to his riding, around half way Shintaro switches to a front brake, enjoy the edit!
The month ended with Adam Kun and Sevisual Tom combining to bring you this banging “Welcome to Kunstform” edit filmed in Cali! The half cab half whopper step with the same foot to pedal 5 at 2:17 had me hitting the rewind a few times just to figure what was going on, and there is a ton more! This is a real treat!
Almost daily I get new ideas for the site, in the case of reviewing 2012 I felt the “Defining moments of 2011” didn’t really do the whole year justice I felt like I skipped a lot, in doing so, this article quickly turn into a bit of a monster!
How do you reflect on such a good year with just “Defining Moments” I thought to myself?
I do believe 2012 was one of the best years for flatland that I can ever remember.
So I started documenting all the edits and articles/news as I always do, this time I used the loose criteria, did they make me go back and take numerous watches/views.
I realised pretty quickly that this idea was a monsteras I hit rewind on some many edits, but much like when I’m riding, once I get an idea for trick/or article I stick at it until it’s done.
Two months later, staring at all these video references/notes, after much gnashing of teeth, re-edit after re-edit, here I am with Part 1!
I started brainstorming ideas best to showcase the year as concisely as possible.
This is what I came up with:
This article will come in three parts, Four months summary at a time, with a bibliography.
Let me know what you think in the comments. I am interested to see what people think. Hope you enjoy my breakdown! Anyway, enough of me rambling, let’s crack on!
Welcome to Part 1 of 3 for my review of 2012. Hold tight!
As early as January 4th, One of my favourite riders to watch, Stephan Hearn dropped an amazing ESPN profile edit dropped which kick started the year off nicely! Stephan’s riding since his Create part has always amazed me! 2012 has seen a lot of new faces come to the forefront which is amazing and much needed for our sport/artform. On January 14th, Kensuke Hamai from Japan dropped a “Must Watch” back wheel edit, with effortless switches which further pushed the foundations made by the likes of Nathan Penonzek, Raphael Chiquet and more recently Yohei Uchino.
Working on interviews as I have said many times is one of my favourite parts of putting together FM, first up for the year was Athens stylecat, Jody Temple, who kindly put together a really nice edit for coincide with the interview on January 18th. The year seems to have flown by, as this edit feels like it dropped a month ago.
On January 19th, Quentin Pelorson from France dropped some bombs on the Grenoble scene edit, the forward karl step to halfpacker (11.27) still has me hitting the rewind months ahead, I hope in time this guys riding gets the recognition it really does deserve. Really excited to see how his riding develops this year!
After the well received FM exclusive edit on January 20th, I dropped the first big interview of the year, with Jody Temple. This is most certainly well worth going back over and reading again, plus some awesome photographs to boot!
Also on this day, the first major jam of the year took place in Zuma Beach, So Cal. The One Love Jam saw a reunion of some flatland legends like Dylan Worsley, Day Smith, Brian Tunney, Cory Fester, Chad Johnston, Ed Nussbaum, and many more shredders. The One Love crew added a highest bunnyhop event that helped attract more riders and sponsors, and of course fun! Good times on the West Coast!
On February 6th was a great day for flatland! Tomoaki Yoshimura dropped a “Must Watch” back wheel edit, with his amazing two footed scuffing technique on forward puppets, Tomoaki had a great year featuring a lot across every flat website/blog on the planet. Hope to see more creative riding from this guy in 2013.
Also on February 6th I dropped the second big interview with Flatland legend, Simon O’Brien, I feel like sometimes this dude and what he’s done gets forgotten very quickly, as he’s out there in Australia, but as it turns out later in the year he featured a lot more. As we would later in the year find out.
Also, Adam Kun teamed up with his friend Tom at Sevisual to show the world his new brakeless style. Like I said February 6th was a good day!
On February 11th, Alex Jumelin joined forces with Matthias Dandois to kick start his year with a bang, 2012 was one of Alex’s most productive years yet, and this edit at his work/home riding spot in Paris set the tone of the year.
On the same day, Aleksi Ritsila dropped his Welcome to S&M edit, all I can say is Wow! Go watch that again. I wish the flatland world could see more of this style cat, but on the flipside it’s kinda nice getting brief glimpses of his awesome riding.
George Manos came over to the UK in February, and filmed a few FM exclusives at my indoor spot, but the real treat came on Feb 18th when he teamed up with the talented film maker/videographer, James Smith. The black and white tone and darkness of the edit captured George’s personality and minimalistic riding style perfectly, go watch that edit again!
Two days later, as we all recovered from Georges amazing edit, Tom at Sevisual got together with spanish style cat, Viki Gomez whilst he was over with Adam Kun for a contest in Madrid to film a sweet part in Madrid. Viki won the contest on home soil..
March always starts with the Toronto contest, now that the Circle Cow contest is no more. Toronto really is the first big contest of the year, and the first chance many of us get to see what the heavy hitters are up to for the year. And of course Canada has always historically helped breed some of the worlds best flatlanders. In 2012, Moto Sasaki took the win from Czech’s Dominik Nekolny, the result was uber close, a real tough to call, with how Dom ended the year at Texas Toast you wouldn’t bet on Dom going back this year to take top honours in Canada.
Whilst George Manos stayed at my house, I asked him if he would write an article about his thoughts on originality in flatland, on March 2nd, we released his thoughts and philosophy, entitled “Originality – a hidden identity” that gave you the flatland world some insight into this talented riders world.
Four days later, Bert Ribul had me thinking “is the guy that could step up and be the next big thing?”, so many crazy brakeless switches with nuff style, as I remember this is the first post I ever “stickied”, I may have got carried away with the amount of time I kept it stickied for. Bert’s edit was one of the best of the year, and certainly helped his invite to the Red Bull Circe of Balance later in the year. And 2013 looks like being a good year already for Bert!
On March 15th, Jean William Prevost dropped an amazing “Spring Cleaning” edit, killer back wheel pedal pivots, turbines, and so much flow, the edit had many saying “If he can hold it together he will win a contest…”… They were later proved they were not far wrong on that prediction….
On April 6th, one of the best edits of the years dropped and surprised the world, embracing the old, but making it new, John Yull’s “3 years” edit had me screaming at the laptop numerous times, it was great to see John back firing, John flipped the old and made it new! Killer foot jam decade variations, power mowers, the list goes on! As we all know John this year is working on his part for Same Thing Daily 3. Really excited to see what John has in store for us.
Hiroya Morizaki came out the blocks hot in 2012, winning the first round of the KOG, dialling in his no scuff mega spin whopper combo, everyone knows that no one rides like Hiroya, when the man is on, as I said on the Red Bull COB live feed, “get out of town”.
Shortly after the KOG, of course it was time for one of the best contests of the year and Round One of the World Circuit series, Jomopro. On the eve of the contest, April 9th, Fat Tony dropped an amazing practise edit which was really the first time we saw a lot of the japanese riders in 2012, and wow, Yohei Uchino stood out, as it turned out. Ucchie put his previous demons from the Jomopro contest to bed, and stomped his way to a well deserved win.
On April 10th, the news broke that Flatland Fuel’s Pat Schoolen was recovering from an operation to remove a tumour, thankfully Pat recovered well. But this news certainly shook the flatland world for a minute.
On April 11th, I dropped the story of the trip to the One Wheel Motion TGM jam in London, which certainly let a few of us know that Sam Foakes was back on it, and not slowing down anytime soon.
A day later, OGBikeCo released an amazing edit of the underrated Peter Sarlos, go back and watch this edit, Peter absolutely kills it!
2012 was a great year for Jim McKay, and the first main edit he dropped was the best trick contest edit from the Jomopro contest, we all marvelled at Hotoke’s insane front wheel line, not to mention Terry’s winning combo.
Also on this day, James Smith dropped the hilarious “The downfall of flatland parody” that followed on from TCU edit, James certainly ruffled a few feathers with this one, but in my opinion it is always good to reminded not to take yourself to seriously me thinks.
On April 28th, we broke the news that Alex Jumelin and his family would be moving from their home in Paris, France to New Orleans, USA. Certainly a career defining moment, and complete change in lifestyle.
Two days later, Jim McKay released an amazing edit entitled “Outside Jomopro 2012”, all to often after contests all thats available to see are the runs, Jim’s take Outside the contest, hit the nail on the head. An absolute treat with amazing riding from the likes of Viki Gomez, Hotoke, Dub, Matthias Dandois, and many more. Oh yeah that edit? Go watch it…
Part 2 to be continued Monday, does anyone see why this quickly became a monster? ….
As I began reviewing the year, and realising just how many good videos/contests/interviews/scene edits there have been. It hit me that in addition to my review it would be cool to get the opinions of some of the riders/and industry heads that have made these highlights happen. Theres a real sense of things are on the up this year, read on to the first part of this 2012 Highlights article.
“2012 has been a great year for flatland. What has been the highlight of the year personally riding wise for you?”
Photo credit: James White.
When James White dropped this incredible bikeflip on “Whitelines” the whole flatland world took notice. As I look back on the year, this is without a doubt one of the standout moves of the year! Find out what his highlights were right below.
James White: Haven’t really travelled this year so my highlight is pretty restricted but it’s also a very easy one, The return of the Jaffa! Let me take you back to the close of 2011. It’s dark,cold, miserable weather and I’m pretty down. I get a call from Sam, when ever we get to catch up it’s so much fun putting everything to rights. So great I think this will cheer me up, but this call was different. Sam wasn’t riding said he wasn’t into it anymore, my heart dropped nooo can this year get any worse I was thinking. But I didn’t let on to him just telling things like, ‘well if you ain’t feeling it then that’s cool. don’t worry about it just concentrate on enjoying life and see if the motivation comes back, just take it slow with no pressure’. It was a hard phone call. It was like losing a family pet! (Sorry Sam, best I could come with on the fly)…
Anyway fast forward a few months and there’s rumblings of Sam riding, out the blue he goes to that redbull comp and with little practice smashes it. I speak to Sam shortly after this and asked what happened with the not riding? He replies ‘oh, well after our phone call I went out the next and the next day messing about and really enjoyed it, went out the the next and the next and been pretty regular since’……..Bastard!!! There’s me at home worrying about my boy giving up and all the time his out behind my back riding!
Anyway then comes the banging edit by Chris Massey at the Manchester jam. And my year is made!
2013 will have to have Sam’s return the contest scene to beat this year!!!
Sam Foakes: Highlight of the year for me was watching Hiro vs Ucchie on the COB livestream and seeing Hiro go off! COB was the event of the year. Don’t forget to invite me next time Red Bull 🙂 Personal riding highlight would be the Manchester jam. Nice weather and great atmosphere.
Alex Jumelin: Yes it has been a really coooool year for flatland and worldwide I can say that flatland as never been so big. In the number of contest and riders, I just hope that now big sponsor will follow ??????
My highlight of the year was of course to win the FISE.
Bart de Jong: The riding at the Red Bull COB was off the hook!
Without a doubt the most popular choice for highlight of the year. And who would argue really? The Red Bull COB went off! It was a huge honour for me to host the livefeed show!
Photo credit: Naoyuki Shibata/Red Bull Content Pool
Martti Kuoppa: Seeing / Feeling Viki being one with his bike at the COB.
Seeing DUB busting out at the COB.
Hearing Chase Gouin getting rid of illness and getting back on his bike.
Learning to ride flatland just sometimes and be happy about it.
Simon O’Brien: I would have to say for me the highlight was ‘Circle of Balance’. Not only was it an amazing event, but after being away from the scene for a while, it was great to get amongst it and be around so many riding friends again. I didnt realise how much ive missed it! And the event was in Japan….so just an amazing time!
Jean William Prevost: COB for sure!
Tom @ Sevisual: I couldn’t pick a specific highlight, but there were some great moments in the 2012 season for sure! I was able to travel a lot with Adam; we hit lots of contests this year and had so much fun. Hanging out and filming with Viki and the Madrid crew…JFB was a guest of mine for several weeks…Vienna with my friends Michael and Sebastian was priceless with great memories! Flatland wise the best was the high number of Hungarian flat contests this year. Keep organizing guys!
Matthias Dandois: Riding wise, 2012 has been such a turning point in my career, My point of view on riding has changed a lot the past year. I started not give a shit about contest, actually stopped practicing for contest, started riding everything (street, flat, park, dirt, whatever) and I’m more happy in my life than ever before. The highlight of the year are all the tours/trip I did with some of the coolest people: Odyssey trip in the Californian desert, The Frenchys distribution trip around Lyon, The dawn tour all around France, visiting the Jumelin’s family in New Orleans… Theses trips are more fun than anything else, you just have to wake up, go ride, film a couple clips and have the time of your life. BMX is, before everything: FUN, let’s just not forget about it!
Amazing photo of Matthias Dandois shooting with Soul BMX mag #77… Photo credit: Hadrien Picard
Peter Olsen: I’d say just feeling really comfortable on my bike and not feeling entirely stagnant was a main highlight of the year for me . I can’t really think of any particular tricks or days or anything that stand out, but just the overall feeling that you can go out and learn what’s on your mind has always been one of favourite things about riding.
Scott O’Brien: Emcee Voodoo, Dew Tour and COB in Japan. But nothing will beat a session with my homies in New Orleans. I had a lot of progression this spring and it was a lot of fun. Lets see what the winter will bring?!
